Supporting girls in their transition to secondary education: An exploratory study of the family, school and community environments of adolescent girls in Gujarat

Abstract

This study has benefited immeasurably from the inputs of many. We are extremely grateful to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Human Dignity Foundation for their financial support which made this study possible. We could not have successfully completed this study without the support of the Education Department, Government of Gujarat. We would like to acknowledge with gratitude the support that we received from Shri. J. G. Pandya, District Education Officer, and Shri. P. S. Parghi, District Primary Education Officer, Surendranagr district, Gujarat. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of various officials of the Education Department at the block level in Surendranagar District, principals and other teachers of the primary and secondary schools in the villages in which the survey was conducted. We are grateful to Dr. Leela Visaria, Honorary Professor, Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad for reviewing the earlier draft of this report and providing insightful comments and suggestions. At the Population Council, several colleagues have supported us in both the technical and administrative aspects of this study. We are grateful to Barbara Mensch and Cynthia B Lloyd for reviewing the study protocol as well as the earlier draft of this report, and for giving valuable comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank M.A. Jose for ably managing the administrative aspects of the project, Shilpi Rampal for her support with data management and Komal Saxena for ably coordinating the printing of the report. We would like to thank Jyoti Moodbidri and Komal Saxena for their editorial contributions. We also appreciate the efforts of our investigators who painstakingly collected the data. At CHETNA too, several colleagues have supported the study; we are grateful to Pallavi Patel for her support for the study. Finally, and most importantly, we would like to thank the adolescent girls who generously gave us their time and shared their views and experiences with us.

Adolescents’ development of gender equity attitudes in India

“…India ranks 125 on the gender inequality index out of 159 countries, a reflection of the gender-based discrimination that girls and women face throughout their life course (Jāhāna, 2016), as evidenced with disparities in secondary education, employment, health, violence and safety. India suffers from a skewed sex ratio (900 girls to 1000 boys) (National Institution for Transforming India [NITI], 2015); only 32% of girls complete class 10 (Santhya, Jejeebhoy, Francis Zavier, Acharya, & Shah, 2014); 52% of women report some type of abuse in their lifetime (Nanda et al, 2014); girls and women disproportionately experience adverse health outcomes including malnutrition, maternal death, suicide and gender-based violence (World Health Organization [WHO], 2009); and there is a large gender gap in terms of employment in the labour force, as well as the types of work women are engaged in (Razavi, 2012).…”

Gender attitudes in adolescence: evaluating the Girl Rising gender-sensitization program in India

“…However, despite these gains, India is one of the most challenging countries to be a girl or woman and remains a country with vast gender inequalities. India suffers from a skewed sex ratio (900 girls to 1,000 boys); only 32% of girls complete class 10; 52% of women report some type of abuse in their lifetime; girls and women disproportionately experience adverse health outcomes including malnutrition, maternal death, suicide, and genderbased violence; and there is a large gender gap in terms of employment in the labor force, as well as the types of work women are engaged in (Nanda et al, 2014;NITI Aayog, 2018;Santhya, Jejeebhoy, Francis Zavier, Acharya, & Shah, 2014;The World Bank, 2012;World Health Organization [WHO], 2009). To date, few if any interventions and programs in India have focused on mitigating these adverse outcomes by focusing on gender sensitization during adolescence, and fewer have measured outcomes.…”